Month: November 2017

I’m sorry for the lack of post last night- I worked, did only a bootcamp class and had knit night last night where I worked on the dog sweater. Unfortunately I was so exhausted when I got home that I fell asleep even before I got my jammies put on:(. So here I am back today:)

Exercise:

I went to work early, got home late and managed a whole eleven minutes of cardio before I realized I had to go back out:(

I am feeling very pudgy from the lack of running and exercise, and it doesn’t seem to be making much difference to this cold! Yesterday I had my staff workout, but I was freezing during it:(. I think I’ll just go back to my usual workouts!

Teaching:

Well the other shoe dropped at lunch, though thankfully outside rather than in my classroom! I guess some little girls came to play in the sand by him and he didn’t like that so he kicked sand at one and pushed the other and then refused to apologize. He ran from Dad when I went to talk to him after school and dad’s concern was that he looked upset😳😳😳😳. This is not looking good:(. Wrong response dad! I’m keeping my fingers crossed it continues to be an only outside problem (yes I realize I’m living in dreamland!)

After school, three other teachers and me tackled the art room. It had become a depository for junk over the years so it looked full and yet we never have any art supplies! We figure it hadn’t been cleaned out since the 80s as there was stuff in there that we recognized from when we were students!!! It was a disgusting job- so dusty that I looked like the Ghost of Christmas Past when we were finished, and hard work, but it felt great to get it done!!! I’ll be able to go order paper and supplies on Monday:)

I should have taken a before and after as the transformation was quite amazing!

Errands/ Shopping:

I feel like I have been all over the countryside tonight as I get ready to go away for the weekend. I hit Costco for gas, the dollar store for gift wrap and to round out my niece and nephew’s gifts and the mall for a thumb drive. I looked at earbuds too but I want to try out my brother’s this weekend first before I buy.

Tea:

For the past several years I have been hearing about the David’s Tea advent calendar and everyone who knows I drink a lot of tea is always telling me I should get it. I was never willing to spend the $45 on it and so have resisted, however this year, I got a good deal so I’m trying it out:). Starts tomorrow!

I was just thinking that I could also do a Hallmark movie advent calendar and continue my spree of watching one holiday movie each night:) Hmmmm tea and chick flicks- sounds like perfection:)

It was another good day, so I’m still waiting for that second shoe to drop.

Exercise:

Well I yet again didn’t work out this morning. I woke at the alarm but set it for later and was instantly back asleep. When I’m not laying there pretending to sleep, I figure I need it!

I was home in time for a run in daylight this afternoon. I don’t know if it’s the time- right after work, or if I’ve suddenly become stronger, or what, but I had another amazing run tonight. I ran almost 6km, though my phone died at 5.79 and felt amazing! I was strong at the end and carried on past my house cause I felt so good!! I don’t know what it is, but I hope it keeps up!

Tomorrow I’m hoping to get out for a run in the morning because it’s the only way I’ll make my mileage goal for November. I still have 11km to go in two days😳

Teaching:

I was principal today, which was a surprise, but thankfully it was a pretty calm and quiet day.

We finished off the short vowels with u this morning so we’ll get to move onto the long vowels. I love it when things start getting more interesting. Lol my new kid said he remembered our sheet from Kindergarten. I wonder if I’m going too easy on my students??? Something to think about for the new year!

We finished our letters to Santa, and the torture of the Christmas concert song officially began! I will be singing Santa Claus is coming to Town in my sleep and by December 21st I should be officially tired of it! The children already sound pretty good to me and we figured out the lineup today, now we just have to tackle how not to jump off the risers or sound like a herd of elephants getting onto them!

Knitting:

I got the second colour done on my scarf at work, or at least it might be done. I am doing a scarf in garter stitch and a variety of colours just to use up my odds and ends at work, so the question is, do I use the yarn up or just make each square the same (forty rows)??? Opinions?

Projects:

I worked on my photo album project again tonight and realized I only have fifty prints left to label. Hopefully I can have this done before the weekend!!

Baking:

I have been trying to come up with a good cinnamon bun recipe ever since I had to go gluten free and dairy free. I’ve come close but haven’t found a terrific one yet:( Tonight I wanted something sweet so I searched mug cakes on WordPress and band across a cinnamon roll mug cake Here. For one minute and thirty seconds, it was really good!! It would be an awesome snack with tea!

I’ve used several new gluten free, dairy free products lately, but I think I’ll group those into another post:)

Reading:

I’ve been making my way through another Frederik Backman novel, My Grandmother Asked Me to tell You She is Sorry. I got another chapter done tonight:) I’ve been really loving the Scandinavian authors lately, though I need to get to the library soon to get my next book club book.

It was cute, of course and had a happy ending so it fulfilled my requirements:)

Maureen Gets Real gave me a good idea this morning when she suggested watching them while I was doing chores or jobs. I tested it out by watching A Dream For Christmas this morning while I was tidying the kitchen and it really did make the job much more palatable! It was nice to not work in silence!

Well if I want to run in the morning, I need sleep so I’m off to bed early.

I slept in this morning on purpose. I know I need more sleep since I still have this cold so decided to sleep in and just get home early enough for a run outside. My co workers laughed when I said I was going to be home by 4pm today, but I almost made it! 4:06 I walked in the door; I think I walk slower in heels. I changed and headed out the door immediately. It was great to be in daylight! I noticed almost immediately that I felt better than I have in a while! I felt strong and yet loose and ended up doing more than I was planning:)

I had awesome timing, except when I stopped to take this photo! Note to self, figure out how to turn on auto pause. It ended up being my fastest 5km:) I kept waiting to be tired, but it just never happened and I got down as low as a 6:11/km- fast for me:)

Love how runkeeper celebrates everything:)

That was the only exercise I did today, but the plan for tomorrow has a workout and a run:)

Teaching:

I got my new student today and spent the day waiting for the other shoe to drop! So far I have noticed that he’s a snazzy dresser with a cute little sweater vest today. He knows how to read, he prints better than 3/4s of my class, he knows to raise his hand, he remembered where his spot on the carpet and in the lineup was. I’m still waiting! I think I have the right to expect the worst as he brought a gift for each kid in the class and his parents showed up after school with a huge tower of Ferrera Rocher chocolates for me. Who does that if there’s not a problem???

We wrote our letters to Santa today though we didn’t manage to finish them so that will be tomorrow. It was. It’s to see what the children wanted- lots of Pokemon cards which I can’t stand, bet blades which I thought were out of vogue now but I guess aren’t, and thankfully lots of Lego still:) I love Lego as it’s so creative, well for everyone but me. I just spent all my time sorting my brothers Lego by colour and size🤣🤣

Today was my last day of peace at work as tomorrow we start learning our song for the Christmas concert. I always pick a traditional song as then there’s a chance I’ll be able to sing it🤣. This year my co teacher and I are putting our classes together and thankfully she can sing so no one will need to make a last minute effort to fix my class song this year😀😂

(Can you tell I am the least musical person you’ll ever meet???)

Projects:

After running I didn’t have a ton of time but I am working on my photo album project as now I need to clear some pictures off my phone if I’m going away. I got some done and think I’ll have about two more days worth of work.

Knitting:

I got my handwarmer project entered on Ravelry and got it entered for a class in HPKCHC – the Patronus class. I only got three classes done this month, but hopefully along with the six last month, that’s enough to get me put into a house for next term!

Watching:

I watched another Hallmark movie tonight. I should really do other things that would accomplish something!!!

Well I’m off to sleep early as I want to be able to get up for my workout!

On my way to my run this morning it was raining cats and dogs, it was gray when we started and by the end it was beautiful blue sky and sunshine. I was on my own running this morning around Burnaby Lake. It was a wonderful morning though with the frogs croaking audibly and hopping over puddles. Just forty minutes as my body was asking if I was ever sending any oxygen down! A cold and a run don’t always go together but I’m glad I got out for something! I was almost completely under the 7min/km of my goal, but not quite:( The first kilometre did me in at 7:05.

I got a short weight workout in this evening, mainly because I didn’t want to admit I hadn’t. I’m trying to keep the weight training up as I notice right away in my running when I don’t!

Family:

I wasn’t very social during my post run tea today as I was busy booking flights on wifi while I could. It doesn’t sound like my brothers are going to celebrate Christmas together this year and I really don’t want to have to choose between them ( one lives close but the other lives on the island- about three hours and a ferry ride away), so I’m abandoning g both of them and going to visit my parents in Arizona. I really want to celebrate and do Christmas things with my nieces and nephews but I guess it’s just not going to happen:(. I really wasn’t planning on going to Arizona for that long, but the cheapest option was the 24th to the 6th so that’s what I went for. It will be relaxing and of course nice to see my parents and some sunshine. Of course now that I’ve booked, my brothers will probably plan some great thing. That’s how my life usually goes. I will be heading to the island to visit my brother and his family this coming weekend and will make sure to visit with my other brother and his family as well, before I go.

Baking:

My co teacher’s husband has been helping me out on a project so I wanted to thank him. A little birdie told me his favourite were oatmeal raisin cookies so I got busy and made some this afternoon, after my lovely nap on the couch. It’s a new recipe for me, so I hope they taste good! I’ll let you know what he says and if they pass I’ll share the recipe:)

Knitting:

I managed to finish up my handwarmers today while I was listening to Jane Eyre on Librivox. I am pretty happy with them and I even have a little yarn left over so I can hopefully turn my beanie into an actual toque!!!

I made up the pattern. I used 3.75mm DPN. It has ten rows of k2,p2 rubbing. 25 rows of stockinette, cast off four stitches in the next row and then cast them back in in the row following that. Stockinette for another ten rows and then ten rows of k2,p2 rubbing again. On the last row, cast off twenty 2/3 of your stitches and knit across the remaining stitches. In the next row, cast back on the stitches. Do 8 rows of ribbing k2,p2, then stockinette stitch for four rows. On the fifth row and every odd row thereafter, k2tog at the start of each of your three needles. When you are down to 8 stitches, break yarn and thread it through the remaining stitches. Weave in ends and sew on a button to hold mitt when not in use. I used a dragonfly button so a stitch just slips over the tail to hold the mitt back. Otherwise, you’ll need to do a buttonhole at some point.

I thought about using my yarn leftover to knit thumbs, but have decided to leave my thumbs out to use my phone with and to enlarge my hat instead!

Watching:

I have watched four Hallmark movies so far:

A Dash of Love

The Best Christmas Party Ever

At First Bark

Broadcasting Christmas

I have enjoyed all even with the corniness and occasional bad script and acting:) I love them for their feel good vibes:)

Wow I just realized I’ve done no exercise today:( I had plannedtorun when I got home today but I literally just got home! It’s dark and raining out there:(

Socializing/ Shopping:

Earlier this week a colleague/ friend asked if I wanted to go to The Olde Farmhouse Vintage Market. I have to admit this isn’t really my style but I don’t mind looking and I enjoy the time spent with friends. I picked her up at 10am and we got there about 11. We were parked forever away and there was a lineup to get in!!! There were some cool things to see:) One of our other colleagues was there and bought a blanket ladder. The friend I was with bought apainted wooden duck and a coat hook for a friend. It was really cool that they gave you a listing of all of the shops and a map this time. Being me, I checked off the shops as we saw them and took notes about where I wanted to go back to. This was almost as much fun for me as seeing the stuff🤣 I saw cute Christmas ornaments – they were hearts made out of piano music so I might try to make one for my friend who is a big music lover. I found some candles that I loved! They just smelled so good! There didn’t seem to be any of that artificial scent to them that so many have. I couldn’t buy one as I couldn’t decide which scent I liked best. They are online at justcandlesco.com so I’ll be looking and ordering online I think:)

There was another place with a ton of cool buttons, but I think my mom was right, I need a completed project before I can buy buttons because it never fails that I don’t have the right ones:(

Otherwise, I was looking at dressers as ultimately I would like to find one that would fit in my closet. I really need to take measurements and decide exactly what I want though!

It was a successful day though as I enjoyed the time with my friend and I actually bought something. I drive my friends crazy because while they spend $400, I usually spend about $4, but today I spent more! I love words and always wonder why I don’t have any in my house, but I solved that today😀

It’s a little more rustic than my place is but at least the writing is in black and white! It was a good deal and I like the sentiment:) I must like it because it’s already been put up:)

Today was also a success in that it started getting me into the Christmas spirit as there was Christmas music and cute decorations around:)

I obviously take after my mom in liking snowmen!

The most difficult thing about going to these shows is that most things I look at and think, ” I could make that or my dad or brothers could make that”. The problem with coming from a handy/crafty family!

I stopped in at Michaels with my friend on our way home as she wants me to make a dog sweater for her dog. She bought a nice Hercules yellow, so I’ll need to get on that. I did finally get to see the Caron cakes and cupcakes I’ve been reading so much about on other craft blogs. They sure are cute! She almost picked one but ultimately went with a bulkier yarn so the sweater would be warmer!

I actually just got home when another friend texted to ask if I was finally free to go get a mani and pedi at Citrus Nail Lounge. We have been trying to put this together for weeks, so I said yes:). I always have such a difficult time deciding on a colour, especially when I can’t just go by their names!

Here’s what I went with! It was a new experience for me tonight as they had two people working on me at once. I can’t say that I found the experience relaxing as they seemed to be in a rush. Plus, I have to admit that I am super ticklish so getting a pedi is never all that great for me, but I did use up a gift card! Yay me, only three more to go!

Cooking:

In between the two events of my day, I made some custard. Tomorrow I need to tackle oatmeal raisin cookies for my colleagues husband.

Thankfully I swept before I left home today so I got one thing accomplished! Nothing other than a hallmark movie is happening now!

My day was busy and started early with being out of the house at 7am and having a jarring experience immediately, but it has steadily improved all day:)

Exercise:

I got out this afternoon for a run. It was super wet, smartwool socks aren’t the best for wet conditions, but it was still nice to go in daylight. I didn’t push myself but still managed to be consistently below 7min/km even with not being able to breathe well. I think I can finally check that goal off the list.

I was thinking of working out tonight, but I’ve ended up on the couch instead.

Teaching:

I had no children today as it was a curriculum implementation day. I never really find these days all that helpful and I was the one presenting the material today🤣. I don’t know how we did it, but we went through a whole day’s worth of material by 11:40. Okay, class dismissed:)

It was a self directed afternoon, but I didn’t seem to get much done:(

Eating:

Some of the women from work were going for sushi so I went along. It was so yummy, but I just realized now that I was so busy talking that I didn’t take a picture of my sashimi platter. It was better than the place closest to me, but I still prefer Wasabi Sushi where I can get rolls, ginger and soy sauce! The company couldn’t be beat though. I am so lucky with my work colleagues. I was actually out with six of the new teachers and me. It was a lunch filled with a lot of laughter. At one point I couldn’t even breathe I was laughing so hard!

I had a small mishap with a new gf/df product I bought to try. I had read a blogger’s review of Soyatoo Rice Whip, and I found Soyatoo Soy Whip at the IGA shortly after. I almost did a happy dance right in the store! Up til now I’ve been using they So Delicious Cocowhip which is yummy, but has a strong coconut flavouring so I was excited to try something that wouldn’t be coconut flavoured. I don’t know what I did to it, but I couldn’t get anything to come out of the aerosol can of soy whip. One of the daycare workers at my school had a plan so I took the soy whip and a bowl with me to work today. This afternoon, I went down and found Marilyn and she stabbed the can with a pair of scissors and got some of the soy whip out for me so I could at least try it. It had absolutely no propellant as it just dribbled out. Here I had pictured a big explosion of whip cream everywhere 😛. The taste was really good, almost like normal whipped cream. I will definitely be buying this product again!

Today, I was in charge of bringing treats for the meeting so I hit Thrifty Foods first thing this morning. I really think IGA has a better selection of gluten free dairy free products but they just weren’t open early enough. We had decided on fruit, muffins, bagels, jam and cream cheese and then something I could eat. I chose these to try:

These muffins were small, especially when sitting beside typical bakery blueberry muffins. They were easy to open which is a real plus for someone like me who is all thumbs. The muffins were cutely packaged with the bright orange wrapper and could be set out just as they were. The muffins were moist, but I have to say that they didn’t have a strong flavour. They were supposedly cranberry orange, but I sure didn’t taste that! I suppose they weren’t bad though as others were eating them too. I’m not sure they were worth the $10 though!!!! I could have made a few dozen for that price!

Oh I almost forgot that I also tried a new tea today. I tried the David’s Tea- Coconut Cream Pie. It’s a very light coloured tea and I really didn’t taste much. I’m worried about saying that as perhaps it’s just my cold that’s keeping me from smelling and tasting much. I will give it another try when I’m healthy but at this point, I wouldn’t recommend buying it.

Reading:

I have been relaxing, sniffling on the couch this evening and have finished another book on my kindle app. I prefer a real book when I’m at home, but my library books were due back and I haven’t had time to grab some more yet:(

I chose this one to start getting into the Christmas spirit, but that didn’t really work out.

This novel is the story of Stratto who is a creator and CEO of a gaming company that produces games and accessories for blind people. The female lead is Meg, his PA who is obviously hiding secrets of her own. Due to people in both their pasts, they decide to try a pretend engagement. It goes from there:)

I liked the pace of the book as it was neither too slow nor too fast, well no faster than any other romance novel😂. The characters were multifaceted which was nice. The playboy billionaire had worries and concerns and I loved his relationship with Meg’s thirteen year old son. It was enough to melt your heart and really did steal the book! Meg was a very typical woman with her concerns and worries and this didn’t bother me at all as I prefer books about real people. I also liked how the characters were in their mid thirties!

The only thing that was weird for me was the book is set in New Zealand so their Christmas is happening in summer dresses and palm trees and swimming in outdoor pools. It didn’t really help me with getting into the Christmas spirit🤣.

It’s a fun, steamy read and I’d recommend it to anyone who likes businessman romances.

I’ve also been listening to Jane Eyre on Librivox as I was knitting. I’m up to chapter five and am quite enjoying it. I hope I get it finished this month!

Knitting:

I finished one of my handwarmers today, but now need to decide if I’ll leave it as a handwarmer or create a foldover mitt portion too.

Any opinions out there?

Well I think that’s my day in a nutshell. I’m off to watch a Hallmark movie and sneeze:)

I feel like I’m continuously complaining of being sick lately:( This is not how I usually am and I don’t want to be that person here so there will be no more mention of the evil cold!

Exercise:

I didn’t run this morning but I did get a workout in this evening. It’s a Lyndsay special, a bodyweight challenge. 70 jumping jacks, 60 mountain climbers, 50 squats, 40 push-ups, 30 toe reaches, 20 high knees, 10 planks, skip for Five minutes and then repeat going up the ladder. It was a doozy doing it tonight, but I completed it:)

Teaching:

I don’t know if Christmas fever has hit early or what, but my students were a little crazy today!

We did a co-operative poem about peace and then choral read it. Peace seems to be very quiet to at least half of my class 🤣. Note to self: next time have students choose a specific sentence to write so half the poem isn’t the same. We played a sight word game after that and it was really rewarding to hear one little boy say that it was “the most funnest game ever”🤣

Supposedly I had a flasher in the lineup at recess😳 so after recess I got to talk to one little guy about keeping his body private! As a teacher, I seem to wear a lot of different hats and teach a lot more than just how to read, write and do math!

Math was a bit of a bust, but the afternoon was lovely with a prep, planners, co gym and then the ADST bins. I finally got a picture of the children with something they created. They really love those bins. I think it was quieter during ADST than it was during silent reading.

It’s been nice the past two days that I’ve had two parents comment that they enjoy the videos and pictures I send out in FreshGrade. I often wonder if I’ve crossed the line into annoying?? It was good to have the feedback and hopefully it will help there to be no surprises on the report card. Next week I want to video the children reading to me so parents can see that too.

I had my second parent meeting of the week, but so far they’ve been positive😀 Let’s hope they all go that way this year!

Thursday is plan and prep day so my co teacher and I stayed late and got ready for next week. I have one more thing to do, but mentally I was done tonight. Thursday is a long day, but it definitely makes the rest of the week much better as I don’t feel like I’m behind the 8 ball!

My mom very kindly proofread my report cards for me and texted me the changes to be made. I obviously need to give these people a pen! I feel much better now that my mom has read them over and I’ll hopefully be submitting them tomorrow:) Yay free from reports soon!!!!

Knitting: nothing 🙁

Baking: My co teacher said the no bake cookies were really good. I just forgot to tell her to keep them in the fridge or freezer so they may all be one big cookie now!🤣

Entertainment:

I have been lounging on my couch this evening watching the Hallmark movie, A Dash of Love. I’m a sucker for these feel-good movies and my mom said that as long as I didn’t start believing they were real, I could enjoy them. They aren’t the best by any means, but I like the guaranteed happy ending and it’s cool that many are filmed around here so I can recognize places in the movie:)

Wow!

It means so much that someone thinks I’m awesome, or at least they think my blog is:) It was quite a lovely way to start my day! I’ll have my usual post up at the end of the day.

Thank you Julie for the nomination. I enjoy your blog every day so I’m happy to think you enjoy mine as well. If you haven’t checked out Julie’s blog, you should as they are interesting! She comes up with the coolest names for the people she interacts with each day:) LOL

What’s on the top of your wishlist right now?

Hmmm I guess new running headphones is the top of my list right now. I skipped my run this morning due to a sore throat and stuffy nose, but maybe I wouldn’t have if I’d had music to energize me.

If you could pick up a skill while you slept, what would you learn?
Hmmm I would like to be able to be diplomatic and able to talk people over to my thinking and know what to say right away in situations. So I suppose I want to learn to be a confident, persuasive speaker. Right now, I always think of what I should have said at about 2am:(

If you knew that in whatever career you choose, you would never gain fame, prestige, or money from it, what would you want to do?

I am not going to become rich, famous or prestigious in my job right now as a teacher, but I don’t think I would want to be anything else. I have a really cool and rewarding job, even with the tough days!

Is there something you wish you could tell your parents?
I already tell my mom everything and even if I didn’t, she reads my blog so she would know. With my dad, well, probably better to just keep my mouth shut, haha!

What is the biggest pet peeve of yours?
People who don’t think about anyone but themselves. The world could be such an awesome place if everyone would just think of others before themselves!

How do you deal with rude family members?
I don’t think I really have rude family members, maybe I’m this person in my family ??? I suppose I just ignore them!

What’s more important to you, health or happiness?
Oh this is tough as I am a naturally happy person and can’t imagine how awful life would be if you were never happy! However, I am also very health conscious and know that I enjoy life so much more when I am healthy. I just don’t think I can decide!

What’s your favorite Disney film? If Disney is not your thing, what is your favorite film?

Hmm have I mentioned that I come from a family of men! If you had asked me what my favourite John Wayne, Clint Eastwood or Indiana Jones movie was, I could answer, but I’m not even sure I’ve ever seen a Disney movie! LOL

What do you do when you’re alone for long periods of time?<<<<
Hmmm I’m alone a lot, so if you’ve read my blog, you know what I do when I’m home alone, LOL

Okay, so here’s where I’m supposed to nominate people and notify them. I have no idea how to do that, so I will just put a link to their blog and hopefully, they’ll get the idea!

A good day, but there are just not enough hours in the day for all the things I want to do!

Exercise:

I got my butt out of bed and went out the door for a run. It was a tough go so I said I’d just do five minutes out and five back, thankfully it turned into my usual run, though I didn’t quite make thirty minutes. I was just glad to get out!

I did the workout Wednesday with the children and then also ran two laps at the start of gym with them. My legs feel very sore though:(

After school we had our staff bootcamp. It was only four of us today so quite quiet. It was lots of cardio today as we did: high knees and v ups, skaters and punch crunches, reverse lunge with lateral raises and donkey kicks, running and leg curls, reverse lunge with a hop and planks, bench lateral step ups and push-ups, side shuffle and plank shoulder taps. It was a good workout, but it’s funny that it felt like working out again when I got home. On Sunday one of my running buddies was talking about getting addicted to weight training and I said he was crazy, but maybe he’s not.

Teaching:

We had a pretty normal day. We read a friendship book and made connections, did some work with base ten blocks and wrote about our hip hop dancing at the end of October ( I completely forgot about doing hallway writing about it!!). All throughout these activities I was busy getting all the children assessed on math. I really dislike when I have to do these formal assessments as I pretty well have to stop teaching to do them. I film the children in FreshGrade and that means I can’t stop and help or review work with any of the other children. I feel like assessing makes me a bad teacher:(. I think tomorrow we will do tons of game playing to make up for the past two weeks!

I finished my report cards this morning and have switched with Lyndsay for proofreading. I so hadn’t thought about the fact I would actually have to read hers when I suggested this🤣 I also sent mine to my mom to get her to proofread them. She’s an awesome editor and it will make her feel at home 😂. The goal is to hand them in on Friday so I don’t have to think about them this weekend!

Baking:

I made some no-bake cookies tonight. My co-teacher shared her avocado and grapes with me today (she doesn’t think I eat enough) so I want to take something for her tomorrow. The recipe is from here:

It was super easy as it only had four ingredients: oats, peanut butter, coconut and maple syrup (though I used agave syrup instead). I’ll let you know what Liane thinks of them tomorrow:)I think they took me a whole six minutes start to finish though I’m going to leave them in the freezer overnight as they still seem sticky!

I thought Of Maureen tonight as I had a baked potato for dinner. It was yummy ! I never think of having a potato but it was quick, warm and filling- perfect for this cold, rainy night!

I tried a new non dairy egg nog the other day. My friend had mentioned this one before so when I saw it I grabbed it!

It was thicker than the So Delicious one I usually buy but I found it didn’t have the strong egg nog taste I like. If only they could use this texture and the So Delicious taste! I’ve decided that there will be no more egg nog! No wonder I’m feeling pudgy!

The other news in eating is that I found an aerosol can of rice whipped cream. I was so excited, but the can is broken and I can’t get anything out:( I unfortunately don’t have the bill anymore so I can’t return it. Anyone have any advice for me??? I am so disappointed as I was really looking forward to it as I had read a fellow blogger’s Review!

Knitting:

I have gotten the cuff done on one of my handwarmers but that’s it:(. There are just not enough hours in the day! Today a blogger mentioned taking a holiday day just to crochet. I’ve always wanted to stay home from work for a day just to knit, but unfortunately I just can’t bring myself to do that:(

I’ve said this several times to myself today, but I also had a couple of win wins:)

Exercise:

Absolutely none! I was up most of last night feeling sick (you don’t want any more details!) and it hasn’t been much better today. I have definitely ended up with dairy in me:( I have no idea where or when, but right now I still don’t feel like eating. I was going to exercise when I came home, got dressed, got the equipment out, started warming up and realized that I was definitely not well enough:(

Tomorrow is another day:)

Teaching:

I have written ten report cards today! I feel like that is all I have done! When my colleagues went home at six, I thought to myself, might as well stay for another hour and see if I can finish. I didn’t quite as I have 1.5 left to do tomorrow. I always like at least having a draft I could send home in a pinch. I’ll have to start watching the children closely so I can tweak reports as necessary.

The best thing in my classroom today was reading the book What If Everybody Did That to my class. I absolutely love it! This copy was the kindergarten teacher’s but ill for sure be buying it. I think I will also start saying that to the children. They loved the pictures and I loved the message so it was a win win!

The other good thing that happened was that a retired teacher from our school was the TOC (substitute) who came in this afternoon. She was so sweet and brought tarts for the staff and these chips for me

They are called Bean Chips from Costco and they were so good! I’ll have to keep my eye out for them! It was the thoughtfulness that she that got to me! I have definitely worked with some amazing people and continue to do so!

I literally just got home from work so I have not read, baked or knitted🙁 All I have done other than write report cards is drop off my library books this morning and type out the Twelve Days of Giving Schedule at work (we collect certain food on certain days to benefit our local Share Foodbank),and try to find a book on YouTube about goal setting for children. I have to organize the January assembly now as it is on the first day back in January.

Reading:

I did manage to finish a novella last night on my kindle as I was trying to distract myself. Winning Back His Wife is the first in a series that I have read some others in.

It tells the story of Michael and Heather who met at summer camp as kids. They fell into kid love and it feels into more when they met up again at Dartmouth College. Unfortunately they now seem to be heading for a divorce as Heather has bought the camp they met at and has grandiose plans for it, which she did without consulting Michael!

I enjoyed this novella. The pace was good and I liked how it bounced around to different decades of their relationship. Heather is a strong female lead and Michael is believable.

I would recommend this story to anyone who went to camp as a kid is nostalgic for it. As well, it’s one of the better second chance romances I’ve read.
I promise to try and be more entertaining tomorrow. I figured I might as well post a little early as I dont plan to do anything all that exciting!

Right now I am going to cast on a handwarmer that I’m going to try to modify to also have a mitt covering. I didn’t like the pattern I found so I am going to try and alter my usual handwarmer pattern. Wish me luck!

I started a simple garter stitch scarf at lunch, since I didn’t feel like eating. This scarf will be another donation for the Christmas Market fundraiser at my school and will hopefully use up a lot of my small scraps of yarn! My second win win of the day!

I also got asked to knit my colleague’s dog a doggy sweater today. She is looking for one that buttons and you don’t have to stuff the dog into it. Any pattern suggestions are welcomed!